Mordioux! my wits seem to have left me," said D'Artagnan; "it is all over with me.

Yet, supposing I were to attack this poor devil, make him draw his sword, and kill him for the sake of his letter.

No harm in that, if it were a question of a letter from a queen to a nobleman, or a letter from a cardinal to a queen; but what miserable intrigues are those of Messieurs Aramis and Fouquet with M.Colbert.A man's life for that! No, no, indeed; not even ten crowns." As he philosophized in this manner, biting, first his nails, and then his mustaches, he perceived a group of archery and a commissary of police engaged in forcibly carrying away a man of very gentlemanly exterior, who was struggling with all his might against them.

The archers had torn his clothes, and were dragging him roughly away.

He begged they would lead him along more respectfully, asserting that he was a gentleman and a soldier.